View full sizePHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGGJim Belushi and the luminous Nina Arianda shine in the new revival of Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday," up now at Broadway's Cort Theatre. Visit BornYesterdayOnBroadway.com for showtimes and ticket details.

Fists were clenching all over the Booth Theater, where Garson’s Kanin’s evergreen 1946 comedy “Born Yesterday” is at last receiving the luminous revival it deserves.

It was the 10 p.m. moment of truth. Crooked junkyard magnate Harry Brock (Jim Belushi) was smacking some sense into Billie Dawn, his bottle-blonde “broad.” Fast and shocking, the one-two tune-up was so well played that it nearly sent members of the audience over the footlights and onto the stage in rescue mode.

But, this Betty Boop-voiced Billie, the amazing Nina Arianda (whose much-noted debut was last season in “Venus in Furs”), hardly needed saving. In a part so closely tied with Judy Holliday that even the matchless Madeline Kahn failed to get it right, Arianda triumphs without even chipping one of her long lacquered nails.

Rhinestone-in-the-rough Billie has to be sturdy but soft and lovable and this one is exceptionally appealing and funny, and fun to watch as she stalks coltishly around the gaudy ($235-a-night!!) post-war Washington hotel suite. John Lee Beatty has made a sapphire-and-white Wedgewood extravaganza, complete with gilt detailing.

Cinderella has already got the palace, the prince (such as he is) and two mink coats when this tale opens. Still, she’s going to tumble for her relatively penniless tutor, Paul Verrall (Robert Sean Leonard), as quickly as he falls for her.

As everyone knows, Brock has hired Verrall to “wise up” Billy, educate and socialize her so that she doesn’t mar his D.C. wheeling-and-dealing. Eventually of course, she will defeat him and assail, if not break, whatever he has that passes for a heart.

We believe Brock, don’t we, when he admits he’s “nuts about her,” even as he’s making cracks and running her down. Then again, she’s complicit. “I’m stoopit,” she crows at one point, “and I like it.”

But her eight-week crash course in civics, citizenship and civilization, is successful, adding a bright hard shell of patriotism and moral conviction to her natural honesty and effervescence.

Yes, the performance brings Holliday to mind. How could it not with it’s precarious balance of vulnerability. innocence and grit. Still, the young actress has said that she hasn’t ever seen the 1950 film, a best-picture that brought Holliday a best-actress Oscar.

Arianda’s allure is a more X-rated than that of the cuddly Holliday. She looks great in Catherine Zuber’s wide-shouldered costumes, particularly that black boudoir number, and she hums little snatches from “Anything Goes” — a neighboring hit this month in the theater district.

Billie was in the chorus of that show when she slipped willingly into Brock’s dirty-fingered clutches.

Her change-of-heart-and-mind is heartwarming, just as you expect it to be. Sad to say, it was that tune-up that clarified her thinking, she assures us.

Director Dough Hughes has to be credited for the immaculate timing, and pacing, although his contributions are difficult to discern, as it should be. It helps that he found the right cast and designers and let Garson Kanin’s smart script work its charms.

Belushi’s bellowing Brock was big and entertaining.. If the story were happening today Brock would be a birther. Funny how much the character resembles a certain hotelier/casino owner/presidential wanna-be.

It’s a little hard to imagine how Robert Sean Leonard’s too-understated Verrall would keep up with the scintillating Billie Dawn. Frank Wood had funny but sad moments as the boozy sell-out attorney Ed Devery.

But back to the extravagant wattage that is Ms. Arianda: A new star blazing over Broadway.